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“As you are intimately aware, Hemlock, some of the items within my extensive collection, while invaluable for my line of work, do skirt the line of legality.” She preened. “I won’t abide murder, but I was not about to out myself.”

“What does the Devil’s Mirror do, exactly?”

Iona shrugged her bare shoulders as if she might attempt to play coy again. “Abigail took it to use as an instrument of revenge. So, she could make whomever looked into it to see their every sin in glaring detail—insomuch, they may be driven to self-destruction.”

“Why did you have it?”

“I was keeping it safe.”

“For whom? Clearly not the Winter Council.” It took every ounce of restraint for Avery to not blurt out Queen Ulla’s name. Now was not the time for accusations, and this was not the person to be trusted with such information if she was wrong.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss my clientele… As far as our agreement goes, neither are you.”

“I can ask,” Saga offered.

“Get a warrant,” Iona purred at her. “I would be exceptionally proud if you managed to compel me to share confidential information without getting your partner killed in the process or thrown back in Blackthorn.”

Avery sighed. “There were shards of the mirror in the Erlking’s body. Why?”

Another shrug. “I cannot say. Nor do I know where all the other pieces went after Abigail stole them. I managed to recover one after her arrest before it fell into the wrong hands, but beyond that…”

“Have you seen her since her arrest?” asked Avery.

“I don’t imagine anyone but her advocate has seen her.”

“Blackthorn?”

Iona hummed her affirmation.

There were liars, and then there were deceivers. Liars often got caught because they trapped themselves with direct statements. Deceivers used honesty and ambiguous phrasing to mislead you to an assumption you made yourself. Iona, having almost always been the latter, had made it nearly impossible to take anything at face value—especially truths.

Still, what she could trust was that even if Iona attempted an outright lie, it would not be something Avery could verify with the council, and prison records would not have even required formal approval. The one comfort was that if Abigail Rhyder was in prison, she, like Patricia, would essentially be in protective custody.

“You mentioned Elizabeth Hingley not being aware of your services?”

“That woman is not aware of much. She believed the shoddy story that her husband overdosed and had a psychotic episode. I do not deal with the Mundane, too much paperwork and not worth the risk of drawing the ire of the council.”

Avery leveled her gaze on Iona. “Has anyone approached you seeking revenge for John Hingley?”

Iona sighed. “No.”

“Have you approached anyone offering revenge for John Hingley?”

The iele rolled her eyes. “You know what your problem is, Hemlock? You are boring. Boring and unimaginative. No. I have not served in revenge on John Hingley or for him.” She checked her watch. “Now if you are quite finished with all this, I have an actual business to run.”

“I think we are done here,” Avery answered curtly. “Saga, shall we?”

Iona turned back to Saga, the melody returning to her voice sweeter than before. “I understand why you don’t wish to risk going after a Blackthorn, but I do hope you’ll reconsider allowing me to take care of Hugh for you, darling. I haven’t fed on something so delicious in quite some time, and his kind of arrogance is fuel for all manner of curses.”

Saga clenched her fist, took a deep breath, and looked to Avery. Her expression wasn’t asking for a rescue but her opinion.

She might have laughed at the absurdity of it if she didn’t understand how tempting any offer Iona made with that voice. “There are less damning ways to kill a man, Saga.”

Her companion smiled politely to Iona and made what sounded like a genuine apology, and they made their exit together. “How guilty do we think she is?”

“She’s not involved, she just likes playing with her food,” Avery grumbled, replacing the glamour chain around her neck.

“All right.” Saga’s voice sounded tight. “How did you know one of them worked here?”